The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli is like the hot metal typeface Venus Grotesk, a classic.

The Birth of Isola

The design process of Isola a careful remake of Venus Grotesk.

If you are interested in early 20th-century grotesque fonts, you will encounter Venus Grotesk. This iconic typeface was first released in 1907 by the German Bauer Type Foundry. Venus Grotesk has a monoline structure and, compared to later grotesque fonts, a more irregular design—the strokes end at various angles.

Scan of Venus Grotesk Halbfette, Buchdruckerei E. Bühlmann & Co, 1925

Venus Grotesk strokes end in various angles

Venus Grotesk reflects its time, featuring some typical elements of Jugendstil graphic design, such as the high-waisted capitals, visible, for example, in the uppercase R.

The late great type designer Walter Tracy points to Josef Hoffmann, who created this expressive lettering a few years earlier. These irregularities give the typeface a warm, artisanal appearance. The form language is rational but not sterile.

A well-known use of Venus Grotesk appeared in Jan Tschichold’s book, “Eine Stunde Druckgestaltung”. The typeface was also used in other avant-garde printing of the period. However, by the mid-century, the font was often overshadowed by prominent designs such as Akzidenz-Grotesk, Helvetica, and Univers.

As I browsed my specimen books, I became intrigued by the idea of digitising this beautiful hot-metal font. There are already digital versions of Venus Grotesk, but I noticed the potential for a closer translation to the source material. My goal was not to overly streamline the letterforms but to maintain their distinct personality.

The first question was which source material to use: the original letter drawings, the metal letters, or printed text. I chose the printed source because it was my first experience with the font as a type enthusiast. I am a graphic designer by training, so my approach to historical typefaces primarily involves printed materials.

After deciding on my starting point, I had to choose which size I wanted to translate into digital format. In hot metal type, there is a design for each font size (see also essay → Every Size it’s Design). I mainly focused on the 12-point version. This size is reasonable for scanning and analysis, and it still produces a sharp print. The 12-point version also performs well in smaller sizes.

Scan of printed hot metal Venus Grotesk Halbfette in 16pt. 12pt. 10pt. 8pt and 6pt fonts are optically adjusted to appear the same height.

Scan of printed hot metal Venus Grotesk; the angled arm of the uppercase-E was too much for my taste.

I began the process by scanning all my specimen books and tracing the shapes. Once I had the complete glyph set, I started reworking each letter form to fit its word context. I aimed to stay close to the original; however, some details had to be adjusted, such as the angle of the uppercase E’s arm.

Type designs from the early 20th century show quite a difference between Light, Regular, and especially Bold weights. I standardised all font weights because contemporary graphic design expects a certain uniformity among them.

Scan of printed hot metal Venus Grotesk…

…the final digital translation Isola is close to the source.

The final Isola typeface revitalises the spirit of Venus Grotesk. This remake focuses on the construction and details of the iconic hot metal source.

Like the original, Isola comes in Backslanted, Upright, and Slanted versions. Additionally, I added Mono and SemiMono versions of the typeface.

A variable font animation shows the final version of Isola

A variable font animation shows the final version of Isola Mono